Part one pulled in 2.1 million total viewers

Between 9:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday, part one of the spesh pulled 2.1 million total viewers and 966,000 in the 25-54 demo, according to Nielsen data.

In the same time period on Thursday, part two fared even better with 2.6 million total viewers and 1.2 million in the 25-54 demo.

Both nights beat cable news leader Fox News Channel’s 1.6 million average primetime viewers, but FNC’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” which airs at 8:00 p.m., still accounted for largest individual program audience with 2.56 million total viewers.

CNN/U.S. prexy Jon Klein said that despite positive responses from pre-screenings, “we really had no clue what the numbers might be” for the actual broadcast. “What we found was that his is a vastly undercovered subject with a vastly underserved audience.”

CNN news speshes have done generally well in the past two years. “God’s Warriors,” which aired in 2007, won a Peabody award, and “In the Footsteps of bin Laden” (2006) also was a success, Klein said.